The present invention relates to absorbent articles having side cuffs to reduce side leakage, more particularly to absorbent articles having both outwardly extending and upwardly extending side cuffs.
Developers continually try to improve the fluid containment and comfort of absorbent articles, such as diapers, incontinence guards, and santionary napkins. They have addressed side leakage problems by the addition of flexible, often elasticized, outwardly-extending, leg cuffs such as disclosed in Mesek et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,075, Mesek U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,754, and Menard et al., EP 0 534 488.
Later, product developers added upwardly extending xe2x80x9cbarrier cuffsxe2x80x9d near the side edge of the absorbent structure in the absorbent articles. Examples of these barrier cuffs can be seen in Enloe, U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,278, Lawson, U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,278, Buell, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,317, and LeMahieu et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,431. These barrier cuffs are often added as separate pieces that must be handled and attached to the absorbent article. These cuffs also include individual or multiple elastic strands or ribbons, and they apply the contracting forces in discrete, spaced, regions.
What is needed is a novel absorbent article having both an outwardly extending side flange and an upwardly extending barrier cuff that is comfortable to the user and that is easily manufactured in a continuous, commercial manufacturing process.
An absorbent article having both outwardly extending and upwardly extending side cuffs is disclosed. The article has a perimeter defined at least in part by a pair of oppositely disposed ends and oppositely disposed sides that extend substantially between the ends. The article has a liquid permeable cover material, a liquid repellent barrier material attached to the cover material proximate the perimeter, and an absorbent structure disposed between the cover material and the barrier material. A pair of side flanges extends from a proximal portion adjacent the absorbent structure to a distal portion proximate one of the article sides. Each side flange has a base element, an outer zone disposed adjacent the perimeter and an inner zone disposed between the outer zone and the absorbent structure. There is an elastically extensible element having a width sufficient to span at least the inner zone and a portion of the outer zone, a thickness, and a length.
Each element is connected to each side flange, and the length of the elastically extensible element is substantially greater than its width, which in turn is substantially greater than its thickness. Each elastically extensible element is laminated to the cover material to form a cuff laminate. Each cuff laminate is attached to the base element of the side flange in the outer zone, but each is unattached to the base layer in the inner zone. Finally, the cover is attached to the absorbent structure, at least in a central region of the article. This permits at least a portion of each cuff laminate to be deflected away from the base element of each side flange proximate the inner zone when the elastically extensible element is in a relaxed state. The invention also relates to a process for forming such an article.